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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Power Paragraph Organizer

You either like it or you don't. What am I talking about? I am talking about writing. Many of our students struggle with writing prompts and writing assignments, due to the nature that they do not like or understand how to write a paragraph. I was listening to a Wall Street Journal podcast the other day and they had mentioned that many employers are concerned about the deterioration of writing in the workplace.

We live in the era of texting, emails, and tweeting. How in the world do we get our students to write a simple paragraph? Here is a modification that you could make for ALL students in your classroom. I have modified the original document to better fit students within my classroom. I call it the Power Paragraph Organizer. It is a color coded sheet of paper that ALL students could use, not just our learning support students. It is divided into 3 different sections:

Red = where students write the main idea

Green = where students write the details of the paragraph

Blue = where students write the conclusion

I am planning on using it for writing prompts this fall, so that my students have flexible options on how they write a paragraph. They still have to respond to a writing prompt, but they have a choice on how to do it.

For example, I may ask students to write 5 - 7 sentences on a particular topic. They may use a piece of regular notebook paper or the Power Paragraph Organizer. This is what UDL is all about, providing the supports necessary for ALL students to access the curriculum.